sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!
Year 4, Issue 4, Amāvasyā Special Edition
Posted: 30 April 2022
Dedicated to and Inspired by
nitya-lila pravista om visnupada
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Appropriate Renunciation
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Appearing in English for the first time
Śrī Śrī Guru-Gauraṅgau Jayataḥ
Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha
P.O. Mathurā (U.P.)
21 April, 1976
Mā Umā,
When I was about to return [to Mathurā], I saw you were not well. Inform me how you are at present.
It is indeed recommended to practise yukta-vairāgya (renunciation that develops a mood of devotion) that is appropriate for oneself (yatha-yogya). The renunciation by which the body becomes completely useless and which awakens impediments to hari-bhajana is not favourable for bhakti. You must accept bhagavat-prasāda appropriately. It is indeed proper to accept all the objects of the senses that are essential for one’s well-being, in a manner that is favourable for one’s kṛṣṇa-bhajana. This consequently results in a natural vairāgya and causes no obstruction to hari-sevā and hari-bhajana.
I hope that along with performing harināma you are also studying some bhakti-granthas (devotional scriptures). The bhakti-granthas are śikṣā-gurus. By their mercy one’s bhakti gradually excels.
How is your mother and Sāvitrī dīdī? Send news of the well-being of the others there. I am well in one way. Here, the weather has started to become hot.
Reply by letter. Thus I conclude.
Vaiṣṇava-dāsanuadāsa
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa
Adapted from The Gaudiya Volume 23, Issue 10
by the Rays of The Harmonist team
